PCMR lots come with broad 1990s-era development rights

A 1990s-era City Hall development approval envisions a major project where the parking lots are now located. Tanzi Propst/Park Record

It was amid the great growth debates of the 1990s that the former owners of Park City Mountain Resort engaged City Hall with an ambitious plan to redevelop the base area of the resort.

Powdr Corp., at the time the relatively new owner of the resort, wanted to bring the property into an unquestioned elite status among the mountain resorts in North America. The 2002 Winter Olympics were approaching and skiing in Utah appeared poised for a breakthrough in the industry.

Powdr Corp. in the 1990s secured an overall approval from the Park City Planning Commission that outlined a major redevelopment of the base area, something the firm saw as the key to growing the mountain resort. The approval involved significant development at the Resort Center as well as the parking lots. Split into five parcels, the approval outlined the amount of development allowed in each.

One of the parcels, essentially at the Resort Center, was developed years ago with the Marriott’s Mountainside and the Legacy Lodge. The other four parcels remain undeveloped with the rights secured in the 1990s still attached. They are known in City Hall planning and zoning documents as Parcels B, C, D and E, and they spread through the land where the resort’s parking lots are located.

Vail Resorts, which acquired PCMR in 2014, on Thursday morning said it has reached an agreement to sell the parking lots and attached development rights to a Provo firm called PEG Companies. The firm plans to press ahead with development.

According to the City Hall planning and zoning documents, the square footage attached to the parcels are:

323,519 square feet in Parcel B

192,963 square feet in Parcel C

102,338 square feet in Parcel D

187,157 square feet in Parcel E

The square footage is divided among residences, commercial space designed to support the operations of a mountain resort, accessory space needed at a mountain resort and retail or commercial space.

The details of a PEG Companies development proposal are not known. A Vail Resorts release announcing the agreement touched on the development prospects in broad terms, indicating a hotel and spa, residences, restaurant space, retailers and services for skiers will be part of a proposal to City Hall. Parking and transit infrastructure as well as workforce housing will be included, Vail Resorts said. PEG Companies said the development application will be submitted to City Hall by early in the spring of 2020 with the possibility of an earlier filing.

Robert Schmidt, the vice president of development at PEG Companies, said it is not yet clear whether the firm will seek alterations to the 1990s-era approval. Any changes that may be sought by PEG Companies would not exceed the figures outlined in the approval, he said.

The Planning Commission would eventually weigh any development proposal against the earlier approval. The panel would be expected to address topics like the size and design of the buildings, parking and traffic. There could also be community discussion about whether a 1990s-era approval reflects the priorities of today.